People v. Garcia

Opinion

GOMES, J. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Two eyewitnesses identified 17-year-old Victor Maciel Garcia as the person who fired several shotgun blasts during a gang altercation in an alley. A pellet from one of those blasts apparently hit a 12-year-old girl in the leg and caused slight bleeding. An information charged him with, inter alia, attempted willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder and assault with a firearm and included, inter aha, criminal street gang, personal firearm use, and personal and intentional firearm discharge allegations. (Pen. Code, §§ 664, 187, subd. (a), 245, subd. (a)(2), 186.22, subd. (b)(1), 12022.5, subd. (a)(1), 12022.53, subd. (c).1) A.jury found him guilty of those crimes and found those allegations true.

Before sentencing, Garcia requested a transfer from criminal court to juvenile court on the ground that at the preliminary hearing the magistrate did not find reasonable cause to believe he was subject to the discretionary direct file provisions of Proposition 21.2 (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 707, subd. (d)(4).3) In opposition, the prosecutor argued that Garcia waived any jurisdictional irregularity by failing to object and, in the alternative, that the magistrate’s findings of probable cause to believe he committed offenses authorizing a Proposition 21 discretionary direct file were equivalent to the missing finding. (Pen. Code, §§ 664, 187, subd. (a), 245, subd. (a)(2), 186.22, subd. (b)(1); Welf. & Inst. Code, §707, subds. (b)(12), (b)(13), (d)(2)(C)(ii).) The court denied the request.4

[990]The court sentenced Garcia to an aggregate 45-years-to-life term in state prison—15 years to life for attempted willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder consecutive to 20 years for the personal and intentional firearm discharge enhancement and 10 years for the criminal street gang enhancement—and stayed all other terms. Later, the court recalled the sentence and held a hearing on Garcia’s request for a juvenile disposition. (Pen. Code, §§ 1170, subd. (d), 1170.19, subd. (a)(4); Welf. & Inst. Code, § 707, subd. (d)(6).)

At the hearing, the court characterized as “kind of a long sentence for somebody [his] age” Garcia’s 45-to-life term, as “[p]robably” acceptable the 18-year term his counsel had tried to no avail to negotiate, and as inappropriate the notion “he be released at the time he’s 25 years, in seven years.” The court noted that Garcia returned to the United States after his deportation because “he liked the lifestyle of the gang,” that he increased his involvement in illegal gang activities after his return, and that he even shot at someone “to prove he was faithful to the gang.” On that record, the court imposed the identical adult sentence as before to send the message that having “the younger people pull the trigger” leads to no less harsh punishment than if “the 22-year-old gang members” pull the trigger.